Thursday, October 31, 2013

Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

What if your whole world was a lie?What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is
shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss
and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the
limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and
Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies,
tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris’s new
reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old
discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths
change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle
to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while
facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and
love.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1
New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent
series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the
dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and
Insurgent.

Links:Allegiant on GoodreadsKala's Review: I finished this last night
and afterwards I felt just dead inside. I absolutely hate when a series
ends leaving me feeling unsatisfied and even, in this case, angry. I
feel kind of betrayed by the author.

I loved Divergent. The book
had its faults, but I really fell in love with the whole story, the
characters, the romance between Tris and Four, the Factions, etc. I read
and re-read Divergent probably 8-10 times. I bought the audio book
version as well. I was SO PSYCHED about the movie! I bought Insurgent
and devoured it as well. It didn't have quite the same magic for me that
Divergent did, but I still loved it. So I was REALLY psyched to read
Allegiant.

And maybe my hopes were too high.

I don't know.

That doesn't change the fact that this book utterly and completely disappointed me.

SPOILERS AHEAD

For real, SPOILERS!

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

**What's outside the fence?**

I
was really excited, after reading the 'cliffhanger' ending to
Insurgent, to find out what was outside the fence. I had my theories,
and I was right about some, wrong about others. I was expecting the
cameras and Truman Show-esque thing, but I was not expecting all the
genetic manipulation crap. As soon as our heroes get outside the fence,
there are chapters and chapters of info dumping and, to be honest, it's
kind of dull. We learn that Chicago (and some other cities) were created
as 'experiments' because of genetic manipulation gone wrong. Supposedly
these cities were an attempt at creating more 'genetically pure' people
(aka Divergents). This is so far-fetched and bizarre, but I was willing
to go along with it.

**Tris and Four**

I wasn't against
the dual perspective, though once I finished the book I realized why she
HAD to write it in a dual perspective. However, I don't think it was
done well. There were several times where I would get halfway through a
chapter and not remember who I was in the head of at the time, mostly
because the two narrators had identical voices.

Tris has always
been an interesting character to me. I really liked that she was tough,
but a little vulnerable and naive. I liked her progression through
Divergent and Insurgent. She doesn't really progress much here. We've
always known Tris is a selfless person who is more than willing to
sacrifice herself for the greater good, or for her loved ones. That
doesn't change here. More on that later. She does become kind of
arrogant and holier-than-thou here, and it really started to bug me.
She's 16, but she often acts (and everyone treats) her like a grown-up.
She is pretty much always right in Allegiant and she makes sure everyone
knows it.

Four was awesome in Divergent. He loses all of that
awesomeness in Allegiant. He becomes quite whiny and pathetic to the
point where I actually wanted Tris to break up with him. She probably
should have, considering some of the stupid and completly out of
character stuff he does. I really hated seeing him reduced to this
quivering mess of a boy who does nothing but wax poetic about his mommy
and daddy issues. Four was always strong, and he is the polar opposite
of that here.

I did enjoy the progression of their relationship
though. Some people have complained about the scene where Four accuses
Tris of being jealous, but I actually liked it. I like that they, FOR
ONCE, acted like TEENAGERS. Unfortunately that was a tiny part of this
book, and for the rest of it they act like 30-40 year old worldly
adults.

**THE END OF THE CONFLICT**

So we have Four's
mother Evelyn running Chicago like a factionless tyrannical
dictatorship. Johanna and Marcus running the Allegiant, trying to
reinstate the factions.

Evelyn has been portrayed as a nearly
heartless person, hell bent on making all the Factioned people clean
toilets like the Factionless had to do for so many years. At the height
of the conflict, she is willing to allow a "Death Serum" to kill pretty
much everyone in Chicago in order to avoid going back to the Factions.
This is when Four arrives and says "Hey Mom, I'll be your son again if
you stop acting like a monster" and she goes "Okay."

She then
negotiates with Marcus and Johanna. Marcus wants to take over as evil
dictator and Johanna says "Nah, you're not gonna do that" and Marcus
just says "Okay."

Conflict over.

WHAT?

WHAT????????????

**Mass Murder**

Roth
has not shied away from killing off characters in the first two books,
but I felt like most of that had a purpose. Tris' parents in the first
book, Al (due to the guilt over his own actions towards Tris), Jeannine
in Insurgent, and more. Deaths in Allegiant come just as rapidly and
have even less meaning. Tori dies in a very sudden manner, and then is
mostly forgotten about. She was referred to as the leader of the
Dauntless, but she is killed and then is nothing more than an
afterthought for the rest of the book.

Uriah's death is given a
lot more page time, but only as a way to make Four feel like total shit
for getting involved in the rebellion and to make Tris "right" once
again.

The biggest death of all was Tris, and this was the
biggest disappointment to me. I will be straight up honest - I LIKE a
happy ending. I read YA because I like knowing that things will most
likely end up happy overall. I read romance because I know there will
always be a happily ever after. HOWEVER, I can deal with a bittersweet
ending so long as it feels satisfying and feels like closure. Tris'
death was NOT that ending.

Caleb's betrayal was a huge part of
Insurgent, and that continues on in Allegiant. He has a LOT to attone
for in Allegiant and when he volunteers for the suicide mission to help
save everyone, he does it because he wants Tris to forgive him. And he
doesn't want to live with the guilt of what he did. Instead of letting
him, Tris forces him to let her go instead. I understand this. Tris
forgave him and doesn't want him to die because he feels guilty. I get
it.

HOWEVER

Caleb doesn't get that opportunity to redeem
himself. While I understand that Tris acted the way she had to act, that
doesn't mean Caleb can't take a bullet for her. That doesn't mean he
can't force a redemption. Instead, Tris dies in a completly unsatisfying
scene that left me going "WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?" Caleb lives and
basically still is the coward and traitor.

Caleb NEEDED to redeem himself. He needed to take that bullet for Tris and die.

Instead,
we get this fucked up ending where Caleb lives. Peter lives (gets his
mind erased BY HIS OWN CHOICE and gets to start over). Marcus lives
(just disappears somehow). David (Tris' murderer) lives (also gets his
mind erased and even though he's an evil murderer, no one cares because
he doesn't remember). Almost all the bad guys live and get to have
perfectly happy, normal lives.

This is NOT SATISFYING.

THIS IS POINTLESS.

Sorry,
but this book was awful. I wanted to love it. I REALLY wanted to love
it. I was willing to deal with all the weird genetically damaged stuff. I
was willing to deal with the complete dismantling of Four's character. I
was willing to deal with a lot, but Tris' pointless and needless
death... NOPE. This death felt like it was here for shock value only. So
the author could be "edgy" and "different."

Unfortunately,
all she did for me is ruin the entire series. I won't be re-reading
Divergent or Insurgent anymore. I won't be re-reading Allegiant. And I
definitely won't be seeing the movies that I was once so excited for.
Knowing how depressingly it ends ruins it all for me.

3 comments:

I agree with a lot of your points. The deaths were senseless here. When Tori died, I found myself saying, "Who was she again?" And I didn't feel for Uriah when he died as well.

However, I disagree that Four's portrayal was out of character. He's whiny and annoying, which is different to how he was in Divergent. But in Divergent he didn't have his parents in his life. The moment they show up, you could see Four start to change. Considering he was abused and abandoned, it's no wonder he has so many issues.

As for Caleb, I kind of feel like Roth didn't know what to do with his character. He didn't really volunteer to go, everyone kind of looked at him and he knew he had no choice. He may have wanted redemption, but we never got to see it especially since Tris didn't even allow herself to speak with him.

I do wonder though, if you do change your mind and reread them, do you think you'd change your opinion on the series?

The deaths seemed like they were written without actual feelings behind. Funny how I couldn't even remember how Tori died but Uriah's death seriously freaked me out. There were no feelings there, I never for a minute though Tris was grieving for her friend, she just kept bitching about how Tobias was wrong again. From Tobias's part... there wasn't a lot of grieve there either. He was panicking how he will tell this to Zeke and their parents. There wasn't any character development actually it was the opposite, while Four was a badass before, here in this one he was far more whinier than I thought a weaker person will be. He flipped because he wasn't a divergent... God he annoyed me to hell with his pity parties. My other problem was how he trusted in that girl immediately (sorry can't remember the name), in the first book he tells Tris he always thinks the worst of people than what was this? This book didn't told us all the answers we needed, it transfered the story into something different. All the things that came to the surface were either useless or stupid. I'm really disappointed in this trilogy, I loved the first book, was bored while reading the second and absolutely hated the third. PS: How come so many ppl write they cried their eyes out while reading the end or the other deaths? Hey, guys this wasn't say haven't you read anything sad before?Good review. :)